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One of the fun new herbs I put in my herb garden this year is the Toothache Plant. I started the plants from seeds I got from Baker Creek Seeds, then transplanted them into the herb garden after the baby was born. This plant is pretty interesting. It’s a low growing medicinal herb with funky maroon and yellow flowers that don’t have petals, but just look like the inside of a daisy in two different colors. The leaves are a dark green color and it appears there is some garden bug that likes the taste of them because mine got chewed up pretty good.
Not knowing what to expect as far as growth, I put the toothache plant in the middle of the herb garden, but may move it to an edge just because it’s so low to the ground. You can almost see it in the next picture, but the Feverfew had a stem tip over and kind of cover it. I labeled most of the herbs I could see in the picture. There are more herbs under and behind the crazy Borage that got absolutely huge, you just can’t see them from this angle. (You can click the picture to make it larger.)
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The leaves and flowers of the toothache plant contain an analgesic agent (spilanthol), so if you chew them, they make your mouth go numb. True story. I know you think I was too chicken to test this out, but I took a little nibble of one of the flower buds and then spit it out. Okay, I am mostly chicken–I didn’t pop the whole thing in and chew it up. But anyway, it worked. My tongue and lips went fuzzy and warm and I’d hardly gotten any of the plant in my mouth! It wasn’t super numb like going to the dentist, but I can see how this might make a toothache or sore throat feel better pretty quick. Just so you know, I’m not going too crazy on testing the medicinal herbs while nursing, so didn’t feel the need to chew the whole thing up anyway.
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Well, after my mouth had mostly come back to life, of course I had to offer some to sweet husband. He’s such a good sport. After being very suspicious (probably based on the way I was watching him to see his reaction), he took a nibble, waited for the effects, then actually put part of the bud in his mouth and chewed it up. Too much fun. I haven’t tried it on the kids yet, but they’re next.
After testing it out, I thought it might be best left in the middle of the herb garden to keep soon-to-be toddler from giving the flowers a nibble while nobody’s looking.
Toothache Plant is supposed to be perennial in warmer climates, so we’ll probably have to replant this one as we don’t live in one of those “warmer climates”. For the unique look and potential medicinal properties (plus the fun you can have with friends and neighbors) the Toothache Plant is definitely a keeper for the herb garden in coming years.
